Sports Day and Hua Hin

After arriving home from Koh Samet I prepared for the next week of classes. This week was Sports Day, which the kids prepare all year for. It is a mini Olympics where all the kids compete in different games, such as track, football, tug of war, and a lot of Thai games I don't know the name of. They receive awards at the end of the games on Friday. The few days leading up to the games, which start on Thursday, were pretty lacking in terms of academic rigor or the amount of English language that was disseminated and learned by the students. In other words they were really excited for Sports Day, and we got very little done. On Weds. the students were in assembly all day preparing for the games. On Thursday morning when I arrived at the school the kids were getting ready to go on a parade. To open the games the whole school marches down Suksawat, which is a very busy street, to a monastery and then everyone prepares to march back into the school to open the games. The students were separated into four different teams based on color: blue, green, orange, and pink. Each group marched with the rest of their team and lined up with their group in the monastery. Right before we began the march back, the high school marching band came to lead everyone on the walk back. Once we arrived back the different teams marched around the field to the applause of their parents, and after all of the teams had arrived two students came running into the stadium with a fake torch and lit a fake fire to mimic the real Olympic games.

Once the fire was lit and the opening ceremony ended the games began! On Thursday most of the sports occurred, I watched the students play Tug of War, Football, Chairball (which is a game that mixes basketball and three flies up, kind of), and other Thai games that I do not know the name of. The kids were having an amazing time and everyone was in high spirits.

The next day a lot of awards began being awarded and track and field took center stage. Before the start of the award ceremony and track and field, each teams "cheerleaders"  performed a routine for their teams in front of the crowd. The young Thai cheerleaders were not like American cheerleaders and instead had a very distinct Thai air, but the overall idea was the same-- to illicit a positive response out of the crowd. Whenever the girls do activities for the school they always dress up and put on make-up. This makes it very difficult to notice my students because when they are in my class they wear no make up. It is also quite different to see 3rd to 6th graders dressed up in full make-up making them look like miniature adult women.

After they performed the track and field events began. It was really cute watching the kindergarten kids race as they had no idea what was going on. The teachers would line them up and then make them stand still for the start of the race, but once the whistle was blown for them to start they would run in every direction much to the teachers frustration. Once some of the races had been complete Rob and I began handing out awards. The kids would stand on a platform much like the ones used in the Olympics, with the winner standing on top  and the second place finisher and third standing the the winners left and right respectively.

After handing out awards for a while, I had to leave. Since it was Christmas weekend the school allowed Rob and I, the Western teachers, to leave early if we had plans. I made sure to take advantage of this opportunity and headed to Bangkok early in order to meet up with my mom and Paul so we could head to Hua Hin. I met them at MBK and while we were waiting for Devon, who was coming to Hua Hin with us, we had pizza--which was awesome. After an hour or so Devon showed up and we were all ready to go, but as usual transportation was delayed and we ended up waiting an extra hour or so for the driver to show up who was taking us to Hua Hin. While we were waiting for the driver my mom and Devon got to know each other. After a while the van showed up and we headed to Hua Hin.

The ride down was very uneventful in comparison to a lot of my public transportation journeys throughout SE Asia and we arrived comfortably and in the amount of time it was supposed to take to get there. Once we arrived we headed into the timeshare we were staying at, and it was the most homely place I had been since leaving California. The interior was designed in an ikea manner and the bed was very comfortable. It was a nice place to get a fix of homely comforts. Hot water, strong water pressure shower, a kitchen, and so on. Plus did I mention the bed was comfortable? It was a two bedroom place, and in Devons and my room there were two full size beds which you sunk into when you laid down, it was wonderful. After we settled in we decided to go find something to eat so we all left.



Once we reached the road on the other side we walked for a while, but couldn't find the sports club or anywhere to eat for that matter. We found a guard station and decided we would instead head into Hua Hin so he called us a taxi. Once we arrived in Hua Hin we went to the night market and looked around for while before grabbing some Mexican food! The owner of the place was born in Mexico, moved to Texas when he was young, and then moved to Thailand to teach, in his spare time he opened up this restaurant. The food was really good, and they had handmade corn/flour tortillas! Heaven. We also had margaritas which were quite good. After this we headed back to the apartment, I had a nice hot shower, and then went to sleep in my very comfortable bed. The next day we headed into Hua Hin and went to the beach. There was a storm coming in which made it pretty chilly, and made some nice size waves so we ended up not going swimming. Instead we walked around the backpackers area of Hua Hin and stopped and had coffee and tea at a coffee shop. My mom and Devon told me I was crazy because they had a gingerbread decoration in the coffee shop and I bit and tasted a piece to see if it was real, it was and was very tasty. I also talked Devon into trying a piece so I must not have been that crazy. After that we went and had some Thai food for lunch and went to the grocery store. The whole time I was kind of looking for a way back to Bangkok the next day, but all I could find were private taxis that wanted at least 1,500 baht. Once we were about to leave I found a minivan that went to Bangkok every hour and cost only 180 baht per person! A much better deal. After this we headed back to the apartment. Once there everyone went swimming, but I was too cold to swim so I explored to sports complex a bit instead. After this we went and hung out in the apartment for a bit before heading back into Hua Hin for dinner.

When we went back in for dinner we headed back to the night market area and found a nice place to sit down. This was a fusion place that had all types of food, and I decided to get a steak and baked potato! The first time I had had either in my almost seven months of travel. I swear I could feel the nutrients entering my blood stream as I ate. So much iron. After that we headed back to the apartment and I again had a hot shower and fell asleep in my comfortable bed.

The next day we lounged around for a bit, and then Devon and I packed our stuff to head back to Bangkok. We were going to get messages, but the lady was booked until we had to leave. Instead we explored the grounds for a little while and then around 4 o'clock headed into Hua Hin. We bought our minibus tickets for 5:30 and had an hour to kill so the four of us went and had a late lunch. After eating we headed back to the minibus station and gave my mom and Paul a hug goodbye, and headed back to Bangkok. The ride back was fine, but there was extremely bad traffic, which turned a supposed 2.5 hour trip into a 5 hour trip. Once we arrived at Rama II, Devon and I separated and went our different ways. I hopped on the 140 bus and then the 20 and was back in my apartment in 40 minutes, and I got ready for the next week of teaching.

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Boys fishing in Hua Hin

Mom and I in Hua Hin

Sports Day Cheerleaders 

Track and Field

The Little Ones